Ragini Maharaj’s Kathak Workshop Mesmerises NCR Schools

As part of the NGO’s cultural education initiative, a special Kathak workshop was organised by team Routes 2 Roots at the Panchsheel Balak Inter College, Noida for students from the NCR. 18 schools from Gurgaon and Noida congregated at this workshop, which was attended by 800 students. The workshop was conducted by torchbearer of the Kalka Bindadin legacy, and granddaughter of Padma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj, Ragini Maharaj along with her troupe. The troupe consisted of some of the finest Kathak exponents of the country and dancers of the same gharana, Yashaswani Maharaj, Aryav Anand and Mayukh Bhattacharya. Carrying forward the legacy established by her legendary grandfather, an icon who has also been a guiding light for Routes 2 Roots as an Advisor, Ragini Maharaj made the session educational, fun, interactive and absolutely engaging for the attendees.

They began the educational demonstration with an Invocation of Lord Shiva followed by one of Lord Krishna. She then invited over two dozen students, both girls and boys from the audience on to the stage to learn and perform with her troupe as she taught them Tatkaar and other techniques. The piece was a lot of fun for both the participating students and those students as well as teachers and other dignitaries who followed the steps sitting in their seats in the audience.

The troupe took the performance forward with technical aspects such as the Tarana performance as well as Tihai-s with sports and nature references thrown in. The workshop ended with a piece on Krishna’s Holi culminating in a shower of flowers by the dancers on the audience as well as the students who joined the flower shower by coming back on stage.

Instrument Distribution Ceremony Held at Workshop

The attending schools were mesmerised by the performance and the session was made all the more meaningful as they received musical instruments for their schools. Under the Cultural education program, with the support of Max India Foundation, the NGO has been distributing musical instruments to schools in order to ensure their effective participation in the digital classes held by Routes 2 Roots daily for the crores of students who join these classes remotely from across India. In keeping with that practice, harmoniums were gifted to the schools who were participating in the workshop and were given away to the attending teachers by the Founders of the NGO and . I would like to once again invite on stage – Max India Foundation representative Garima Garg.